319.365 - Some tea party math

    Because today is the deadline to file your income taxes here in the US, my mom, some of my cousins, and lots of other conservative-minded folks are demonstrating in their respective cities to protest "the taxes Congress and this Administration is burdening us with." This doesn't make much sense to me for a few reasons (the first being that I doubt any of these people are experiencing higher taxes due to the Obama administration, which has only been in power since January). What's even stranger to me, though, is the question of "Why now?" Let me explain:

    When George W Bush took office in January 2001, the national debt was $5,727,776,738,304.64 ($5.7 trillion dollars). When he left office 3 months ago, the national debt had nearly doubled to $10,626,877,048,913.08. Congress even had to pass laws to allow the debt to climb that high, because there had been statutory limitations on how high our debt could go. Why were there no protests from conservatives as this debt was soaring? Did they not realize this would have to be paid back eventually?

    Speaking of paying the debt back, how do these tea party protestors think that this massive debt that we accrued over the last 8 years can be paid down? Rainbows and pixie dust?

    If you want to teabag somebody to protest all of your tax money being wasted, I suggest addressing the package to a certain ranch in Crawford, Texas.

    I try not to be too political here on flickr (obviously I can't help myself once in a while), but this tea party ridiculousness drives me nuts.

    Comments and faves

    1. Infininja (38 months ago | reply)

      I love you.

    2. Combustion Glassworks (38 months ago | reply)

      Im with you dude..

      They have been silent for the last 8, if not 30, years. That sat quietly through 2 wars, wiretapping, outing of CIA agent, Katrina, on and on.. But 4 months into this guys administration and they have already lost their goddamn minds.

      The silver lining is the beauty of them calling themselves Teabaggers and giving all of us snarky and sometimes juvenile politicos, endless fodder.

    3. ju.Les (38 months ago | reply)

      Well, I don't understand anything you're talking about, cause things here are so different than in the US...but I really like your tea-party-math-face! ;)

    4. m matthys (38 months ago | reply)

      These people didn't care about the past 8 years because Bush had an (R) next to his name -- and everything that happened during Bush's "presidency" was Clinton's fault.

      I agree with Combustion Glassworks -- that these imbeciles called themselves "teabaggers" is perfect!

    5. Jeff the Trojan (38 months ago | reply)

      It is pretty funny that they've set us up so nicely for teabagging jokes.
      As much as I disagree with their political slant, I've never found it very constructive to call people names. My intention here was not to call these people stupid, it was simply to point out that what they're doing makes very little sense (unless you look at it for what it is, which is purely political and has very little to do with the facts at hand). If we can keep the discussion civil, I think we'll all have a better chance at understanding each other rather than being at each others' throats.

    6. ~ KP ~ (38 months ago | reply)

      right on. This stuff never ceases to amaze me.

    7. Surrounded By Light (38 months ago | reply)

      Ya know, that is exactly why I was interested in going to the one here in RIchmond, to see who exactly was protesting, as far as I can tell the whole event was set up by Republicans as a publicity stunt to try and get some of the stink off of themselves, they are blathering on about all the bailouts but whooooooo started that ball rolling???

    8. ★

      kharied added this photo to her favorites. (38 months ago)

    9. kharied (38 months ago | reply)

      well said!

      Funniest quote I've seen today:
      David Gergen on 360 last night: "They still haven't found their voice, Anderson. This happens to a minority party after it's lost a couple of bad elections, but they're searching for their voice."
      Anderson Cooper: "It's hard to talk when you're tea bagging."

    10. Sue's Stuff (38 months ago | reply)

      LOL!! Very well said - definitely pixie dust if people actually think it will ever be paid off.

      --
      Seen in Flickr Group Roulette (?)

    11. illuminaut (38 months ago | reply)

      It's utterly useless to debate this on rational terms so you might as well be calling names. At least that way it's a little bit of fun.

    12. Robczn (38 months ago | reply)

      Thats just insane...

    13. Jearvi (38 months ago | reply)

      LOL

    14. libraryann (38 months ago | reply)

      A friend of mine just posted this status on FB:
      "Just watched an army of teabaggers demand a definitive amount of nothing in no particular fashion. At least they are patriots."

      Just his take but it made me laugh.

    15. electricapples (38 months ago | reply)

      'Bout time someone spoke up!...=)

    16. Kate Giovinco Photography (38 months ago | reply)

      could not agree with you more!

    17. eweliyi (38 months ago | reply)

      I'm not from US, but we have the same here, so I can only agree with you. Our debt is smaller in pure number but then there is only 11 milions of us in total so we all, including newborns, have something around 5 average monthly salaries to pay.

    18. ireland4517 (38 months ago | reply)

      I can't believe you did that math in your head....your smart.

    19. Man met bril (38 months ago | reply)

      Those numbers are almost incomprehensible.. if you stack 5,7 trillion dollar bills it would produce a stack that is 386836,2 miles high... that's the roughly the same distance as to the moon and back...

    20. *narly [deleted] (38 months ago | reply)

      I am whizzing myself laughing that these tea parties :-) The hypocrisy of it all is quite brilliant. Also, I wonder if I'm the only one having a giggle that they are protesting about "Socialism" in publicly owned parks...

    21. Dave77459 (38 months ago | reply)

      I guess the solution to an inability to pay down the national debt is to treble it's size? When you realize your credit card debt is unsupportable, do you go out and buy a car with your credit card? A house?

      Spending is paid for by taxing. Most of the Tea Party stuff I saw (did you go and listen before you mocked?) was about stopping spending, not cutting taxes.

    22. Jeff the Trojan (38 months ago | reply)

      Yup, I'm quite familiar with the complaints of the tea party folks, Dave. I agree that the answer to irresponsible spending isn't MORE irresponsible spending. However, I still question the integrity of these protesters because they never felt the need to protest when spending was out of control during the Dubya years. Spending was way out of control over the last 8 years, but they only protest now? An extra 5 trillion in spending over the last 8 years was tolerable, but this bailout/stimulus package really chaps their hide? Pretty obvious that it's just a cheap politically-motivated stunt.

      BTW, I'm not happy about the stimulus package, but the alternative (letting these companies all fail and dragging the entire worldwide economy into a depression unlike any ever seen) seems a much worse option. Also, keep in mind that most of the conditions that brought us to this point were brought on by a lack of regulation and the "free market" that Republicans love to champion.

      Last, the Boston tea party was all about taxes. If they wanted to protest spending rather than taxes (an email my mom had sent me about the tea party said that tea stood for taxed enough already), perhaps they should have chosen a different theme.

    23. ★

      ktpupp added this photo to her favorites. (38 months ago)

    24. Dave77459 (38 months ago | reply)

      - I understand your points, but your photo and comments seem to imply that you like the spending that has occurred (bailouts, "stimulus") and don't mind the further spending. The focus of the "tea party" I went to was that the spending already done and proposed necessarily requires higher taxes.

      No, I didn't protest my tax rate, because it was going down. The money side increased as a result, but not as fast as spending—which I didn't like. Now we will see higher taxes, which will strangle the economy. We will see more regulation, again killing the economy. Why are we spending trillions to stimulate the economy while with the other hand killing it?

      And finally, I don't believe we should reward corporations that fail by giving them money. Why should my money go to a company that cannot govern itself sensibly? I don't believe a company is too big to fail. If it is, cut it up and let the smaller pieces die.

    25. illuminaut (38 months ago | reply)

      Even if the protests were against the stimulus package this reaction would still be ridiculous. The brightest economists in the world can't figure out how to solve the mess we're in, yet Joe and Jane Sixpack march the streets because some angry crackheads on talk radio tell them to. I think I trust the judgment of Geithner and The Economist over that of Rush and Hannity.

      The point when I'd consider marching the streets is when it becomes evident that the majority of the stimulus money evaporates due to corruption, but let's give it a chance to work, please.

    26. Jeff the Trojan (38 months ago | reply)

      Dave, you're entitled to your opinion. I may not agree with it necessarily, and I'm sure both of us could find experts much smarter than ourselves to help support our ideas until the cows came home (experts with bias? Never! Hehe.). I'm not sure how my picture or description indicated that I LIKED all of the drunken spending sprees that Dubya went on, or that I was a-okay with more irresponsible spending. I did the photo to point out the hypocrisy of many of the protesters who (a) didn't protest while Bush was spending like crazy and (b) are probably seeing no tax increase - and possibly even a decrease - under Obama. Are ALL of the protesters uninformed or hypocritical? No. Were ALL of the protesters silent during the Bush years about the spending? No. But the vast majority of them are and were in my opinion.

      Anyway, I try not to use flickr as a platform to debate, fight, or push an agenda (although like I said in the original description, sometimes I can't help myself) so I'd really prefer to stop bickering back and forth. I respect your opinions and your right to have them, but I disagree with many of them, it appears. That's not the end of the world. :)

    27. Dave77459 (38 months ago | reply)

      - *huggles* I know for a fact that you are a great person and I like you very much. Your whack politics won't change that. :-P First round is on me next time we meet, unless that means I have to pay for a pricey bottle that Pete or Mark pick. LOL

    28. Jeff the Trojan (38 months ago | reply)

      Haha, you know them well! :)

    29. dakotaduff (38 months ago | reply)

      I find it most troubling that so many of the tea party folks apparently had no problem with us spending money by truckload on building roads, bridges, and communication networks in Iraq.

      I guess if government spending is being spent in another country it's acceptable, but when it's spent here in the US it's commie socialism? :-P

    30. Jennoit (38 months ago | reply)

      Diggin' the debate here - and even more so the fairly friendly and respectful disagreements (Hi Dave! *Huggle to you too*). Your photo and the issue of taxation and debt recalled this Slate article which I found quite interesting. Obviously I don't agree with all of the opinions of the tax party protesters, but I like a good rally....and then again I am not a US citizen so you can probably just tell me and my opinions to get stuffed anyhow.

    31. Jeff the Trojan (38 months ago | reply)

      Get stuffed, opinions! ;) Thanks for the link, Jennoit!

    32. *narly [deleted] (38 months ago | reply)

      Teabagging between consenting adults should be encouraged, folks ;)

    33. *narly [deleted] (38 months ago | reply)

      p.s. While I respect people's right to protest (on that topic - why call it a "tea party"? Why not just a "protest"?), the people who have their children holding signs proclaiming that Obama is a socialist and that "white people are Obama's Jews" really need their head read. Utterly vile.

    34. Grateful Clem (38 months ago | reply)

      why won't anyone teabag me??????

    35. *narly [deleted] (38 months ago | reply)

      I'm here for you Clem.

    36. _Prophet (38 months ago | reply)

      Hear, hear.

    37. Jeff the Trojan (38 months ago | reply)

      I'm your huckleberry.

    38. TeeRish (38 months ago | reply)

      well said, hon.

    39. John Lemieux (38 months ago | reply)

      I was at the Tea party, and they were a lot of people fingering republicans for responsibility as well. I sure was.

    40. Combustion Glassworks (38 months ago | reply)

      fingering republicans? ewwww.....

    41. John Lemieux (37 months ago | reply)

      Shit I guess I stepped into that one......

    42. ★

      o!a added this photo to her favorites. (35 months ago)

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